Gladstone’s snack firm lands deal 100 Hannaford stores set to stock Maine Munchies

ELLSWORTH – The half-dozen employees at Gladstone’s Under the Sun might soon find themselves needing some of their own energy-packed snacks. Not only is this the busiest time of year for the company that markets Maine Munchies, but the business also recently landed a contract that will put its products in as many as 100 Hannaford supermarkets by Christmas.

The purchase order from the grocery chain asks for 10,000 units of the company’s nutritional nibbles, which will be sold in stores throughout New England. Soon customers will be able to find Gladstone’s dried fruits, nuts and organic chocolate snack mixes in the Nature’s Place section of their local markets.

“Hannafords picked up just about everything we have,” said Rosemary Gladstone, who runs the business with her husband, Craig. “We are working on the order right now. We are trying to turn it around in the next two weeks.”

The deal with Hannaford is significant for the company, which started four years ago as a roadside garden stand in Otter Creek, but it will account for only 17 percent of the operation’s total sales this year. Gladstone’s does steady business with L.L. Bean and sells to hundreds of specialty shops around the country. Also, its Internet sales – through www.mainemunchies.com – have increased 140 percent this year.

What the supermarket account will bring to the company is name recognition, Gladstone said Monday.

“In the food industry, that’s key,” she said. “Now we can say to people, ‘You can find us in Hannaford.'”

Roasted peanut mixes, trail mixes and dried wild Maine blueberries, which the Gladstones call “Caviar of Maine,” will be stocked in the stores’ natural foods sections. The items will be displayed on four-tier stands in the aisles rather than on the shelves.

“So it will catch your eye,” Rosemary Gladstone said.

The company also recently relocated from Bar Harbor to Ellsworth, where the staff has temporarily set up shop in the old Morrison Chevrolet lot on Water Street. The Gladstones are renting now but they are looking for permanent space in Ellsworth.

“We want to be in Ellsworth anyway,” Gladstone said. “We want to plant our roots here.”